CPT. KRONOS - Green Fairy
April 30, 2016, 7 years ago
(Independent)
We dug on this Finnish stoner/doom/rock band's debut EP back in 2013, and now Cpt. Kronos are back with another EP (hey, why not?). And while the band's love of Sabbath is firmly intact, the general feel here is slightly more upbeat, more fun, more rockin', although they do take it down to the doom trenches sometimes (see the opening title track, which then quickly rises from those trenches with the band's best rocking moments yet). They do it all well, and the vocals are done better here than first time out, with a comfortable confidence that wasn't entirely there before.
Like the first EP, the production is just ragged enough to be likeable, but nowhere near rough enough to be distracting. And the band is improving as far as flow and structure go: “Olde Ones” flows right out of the title track without you even noticing that you've gone from one kind of doom to another, the band working a nice mid-era Cathedral groove with much skill. “Tombstone Blues” totally nails it with a fun doom-rock stomp, plus, man, I always like a good metal laugh, and one is delivered with much gusto in the very groovin' “Mountain Of The Dead”, a song that really hammers the point home that these guys have definitely improved since last time out, everything just way more solid, energetic, confident, and fun to listen to. I'm sold, and excited to see what the band decides to put on offer for a full-length.